Exactly what does higher profits, dividends and buybacks have to do with whether union labor in WA state is competitively priced to win future contracts from BA? It is irrelevant. BA has a choice to make as to where to build the next plane. The Union can insist on above market wages and watch those future planes be built in TN, AL, etc. The buybacks are not part of the calculus.

1:33 pm December 17, 2013

Jim Parsons wrote:

Unions which once stood against ill treatment of labor now stands for entitlement. They deserve the money funding the buyback and dividends. Wages, benefits, bonuses, pensions, those are simply window dressing. They deserve any money in the bank. They first. They second. They always.

The mind reels as you see people who know what hard work is, simply disconnect when they speak about what Boeing "owes" them. Boeing owes you nothing. And you owe Boeing nothing. Excepting, you work hard, they pay what you agreed to. Or you go try your luck somewhere else. You know; almost like you were living in a free land. Or whatever is left of it.

Corporations that sponsor defined benefit plans closed to new employees got some good news Friday from the Internal Revenue Service, which granted relief from non-discrimination testing rules through 2015.
Defined benefit plan advocates wanted the IRS to allow plans to be considered in compliance if they were at the time of closing. The IRS agreed to the change, but only for 2014 and 2015, and only if benefits were not enhanced for some people but not others. The IRS left the door open for tighter rules in later years by asking for comments on possible new ones.

Washington lobbyists had hoped to get permanent relief from the rules, which were written to apply to ongoing plans. Closed plans came closer to violating the IRS non-discrimination rules as participants' income grew, and some sponsors were freezing their plans as a precaution, to avoid running afoul of the rules.

â€œWe applaud the Treasury and IRS for getting this out quickly and addressing in a very effective way our concerns,â€ said Kent Mason, an attorney at law firm Davis Harman, who is outside counsel for the American Benefits Council. â€œWe have a number of questions about the approaches they've raisedâ€ for the future rules.

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